SOB: Son of a Bos'nhttps://www.sob.boatswain.us
There are three states of being... Alive, Dead or at Sea.Thu, 30 Nov 2017 21:12:12 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4Community Involvementhttps://www.sob.boatswain.us/community-involvement/
https://www.sob.boatswain.us/community-involvement/#respondMon, 14 Aug 2017 15:51:16 +0000http://www.sob.boatswain.us/?p=771Someone on Facebook made a comment implying that, instead of always complaining about local community issues, I should get off my rear end and start doing something about them. Well, this is just to give a hint of my involvement in trying to solve local community issues. …Continue reading →

]]>Someone on Facebook made a comment implying that, instead of always complaining about local community issues, I should get off my rear end and start doing something about them. Well, this is just to give a hint of my involvement in trying to solve local community issues.

]]>https://www.sob.boatswain.us/community-involvement/feed/0U-Turns on Alum Rockhttps://www.sob.boatswain.us/u-turns-alum-rock/
https://www.sob.boatswain.us/u-turns-alum-rock/#respondSat, 08 Apr 2017 17:16:33 +0000http://sob.boatswain.us/?p=734The community living, working and commuting along Alum Rock Avenue has been dealing with construction issues related to the new Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) system for over three years. Recently they discovered that the street modifications came with some unexpected changes. The bottom line is that many are upset that left turns and U-turns, which they have depended on for decades are no longer an option, hindering their access to homes and businesses. Left Turns and U-Turns between US 101 …Continue reading →

]]>The community living, working and commuting along Alum Rock Avenue has been dealing with construction issues related to the new Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) system for over three years.

Recently they discovered that the street modifications came with some unexpected changes. The bottom line is that many are upset that left turns and U-turns, which they have depended on for decades are no longer an option, hindering their access to homes and businesses.

Left Turns and U-Turns between US 101 to Jackson Ave

Here is the new rules for traffic signals along Alum Rock Avenue from 101 to Jackson Avenue.

33rd Street
• Left turns allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)
• U-Turns not allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)34th Street
• Left turns not allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)
• U-Turns not allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)King Road
• Left turns allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)
• U-Turns allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)McCreery Avenue
• Left turns not allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)
• U-Turns not allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)Sunset Avenue
• Left turns allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)
• U-Turns allowed for passenger cars in both directions (West and East Bound)
• U-Turns not allowed for long trucks and long vehicles.Jose Figueres Avenue
• Left turns not allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)
• U-Turns not allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)Scharff Avenue
• Pedestrian crossing only (no turns allowed)Jackson Avenue
• Left turns allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)
• U-Turns allowed in both directions (West and East Bound)

However, the lack of U-turns has become a major issue for businesses, such as Adega. If someone gets reservations and drives to Adega for the first time, they cannot overshoot their destination. If they miss the valet parking and drive past, they may end up going home.

The normal reaction would be to double back, once you have seen how things are laid out. Unfortunately, the following scenario is common. They get off 101 at Alum Rock and head East past 33rd street, but miss the tiny driveway to the restaurant’s parking area. They continue past 34th (no left turn, no U-turn) to King and make a U-turn. Now, heading West on Alum Rock, they begin looking for a U-turn. Not being familiar with the area, how would they know that there is no intersections marked as safe for a U-turn for over two miles! Santa Clara Street is narrow. There simply isn’t a good spot for left turns — except one.

Now we come to Caltrans

There is one place where a U-turn could safely be added. Unfortunately, neither the Valley Transit Authority (VTA) or the City of San Jose’s Department of Transportation (DOT) have authority over it. We are talking about the interchange at the West end of the Santa Clara Street bridge over highway 101.

When asked about this, the knee jerk reaction from Caltrans, without looking at any of the issues, was “No”. So, I am posting this to see if we can get them to at least look into the problem. It is estimated that it would cost around $250,000 to reconfigure the intersection at 33rd Street to include a U-Turn. For that amount of money, the 101 bridge could be modified to include the U-turn, add pedestrian bulb outs and bike lanes.

Start talking with you neighborhood groups and representatives and lets see if we can make it work.

]]>https://www.sob.boatswain.us/u-turns-alum-rock/feed/0Viva Calle SJ & VTA — Almost, but no cigarhttps://www.sob.boatswain.us/viva-calle-sj-vta-almost-but-no-cigar/
https://www.sob.boatswain.us/viva-calle-sj-vta-almost-but-no-cigar/#respondTue, 20 Sep 2016 15:03:46 +0000http://sob.boatswain.us/?p=688Sunday, the City of San Jose celebrated its second Viva Calle. This year they opened six miles of streets to play around in. The route ran from Japan Town in the north, to Willow Glen in the south and Midtown in the west. It was fun, but there were a couple of issues that we ran into. Therefore the rating of “Close, but no cigar.“ Mary and I joined the route near the Shark Tank, where flower marker three is …Continue reading →

]]>Sunday, the City of San Jose celebrated its second Viva Calle. This year they opened six miles of streets to play around in. The route ran from Japan Town in the north, to Willow Glen in the south and Midtown in the west. It was fun, but there were a couple of issues that we ran into. Therefore the rating of “Close, but no cigar.“ Mary and I joined the route near the Shark Tank, where flower marker three is on the map. We headed south to marker one on Lincoln Avenue. The day was hot, but the people were having a ball.

Viva Calle through the Industrial Zone

We continued turn south from San Carlos and headed down Lincoln Avenue. The light industrial areas weren’t too friendly for walking, as almost nothing was open and there were very few trees.

However, we discovered two stores at 460 Lincoln Avenue that completely distracted us.

Good Karma Bikes not only buys and refurbishes older bikes, but they have a monstrous collection to new and used bikes to choose from. They definitely need to be at the top of your list if you are in the market for a bike.

Oak & Cherry Furniture specializes in furniture that is hand made, from old wood, in their local workshops. It is a family operation, where the kids grew up sanding and painting to help with the business. They even have a connection to a local blacksmith, who makes a lot of the handles and such that they put on their furniture. Even if you are not looking for furniture, you might find it a very fun place to walk around and check things out.

In the Willow Glen area, the streets were packed. Lots of tents and exhibits to look at. I sort of felt sorry for the few businesses that were closed, as the potential for new customers, like us, was amazing.

No Cigar — Bike riders

My first complaint was about the lack of courtesy exhibited by many bike riders. There were a lot of good ones, but the bad apples were out in force. It didn’t matter what side of the street we were on. Large bike groups simply didn’t know how to maneuver around pedestrians. It made me think of the relationship between bikes and cars. In this case, the bike riders were in the power position and scared the walkers. Often, I would stop dead as a group approached from in front of me. There always seemed to be at least one rider who was so busy talking to his friends that he wasn’t looking forward, assuming the street was empty. Even scarier were the groups approaching from behind. They would pass within inches, at a high rate of speed, without any warning.

Mary and I reverted to the old, walk facing traffic rule, and spent most of the walk on the sidewalks, just to stay out of the way of the bike riders.

No Cigar — VTA

Initially, I thought VTA was doing an excellent job. Since we were planning to use route 64 to get home, I especially liked the signage showing the changes in the routes. Here is an example from route 82.

Unfortunately, they overlooked one aspect. All along Lincoln, at every bus stopped we looked at between Willow and Minnesota, there was a notice to go to Pine Ave. Pine Ave is only about 1/2 mile to the east, so that looked like a perfect solution.

There was just one problem. By the time Mary and I got to Minnesota, the temperature was around 91 degrees and we were getting tired. So, we headed east on Minnesota to catch the 64 on Pine. However, we walked the entire stretch of Pine to Willow without seeing any indication of a bus stop or a bus. How and where were we supposed to catch line 64?

Fortunately for us, line 25 was still running its normal schedule on Willow, so we used that to get home.

Missing component: When you move a bus route, passengers need to know where the new stations are located. Even if there were only two, at Minnesota and Willow, that would have helped. Waving at the bus, if one had come by during the time we were walking the route, and hoping the driver would stop, simply doesn’t appeal to me.

]]>https://www.sob.boatswain.us/viva-calle-sj-vta-almost-but-no-cigar/feed/0A feral kitten hits the jackpot — It found us.https://www.sob.boatswain.us/feral-kitten/
https://www.sob.boatswain.us/feral-kitten/#commentsSun, 04 Sep 2016 22:57:22 +0000http://sob.boatswain.us/?p=672You never know what will happen when you take a walk. This time we came home with a feral kitten that we found under highway 680. Last night, James, Mary and I took a walk on S King Road, heading towards Story Road. While passing under highway 680 we spotted this little ball of fur, curved up next to the pole of a traffic light. It was a feral kitten, apparently from a nearby homeless encampment, surrounded by speeding cars. …Continue reading →

]]>You never know what will happen when you take a walk.
This time we came home with a feral kitten that we found under highway 680.

Last night, James, Mary and I took a walk on S King Road, heading towards Story Road. While passing under highway 680 we spotted this little ball of fur, curved up next to the pole of a traffic light. It was a feral kitten, apparently from a nearby homeless encampment, surrounded by speeding cars.

I stayed with the cat while James and Mary walked to a local store to get some cat food. It was very, very skittish. I had to stay between it and the streets, as it was constantly trying to cross them. It wanted to get away from the noise of all the vehicles — and me. It did not want me anywhere near it … and ran if I got too close.

While I was waiting, it spent some of the time eating garbage from a pile of old food, left on the side of the road.

When James and Mary returned, we were able to distract it will some real food long enough for me to catch it. I passed it off to James for the one mile walk home, as he is the real “cat person” in the family.

Today it is doing quite well. It is eating, drinking and using the litter box without any obvious problems. It really is “all bone”, so it doesn’t have much energy and isn’t “playing” yet. However, James has broken through its fear of being touched and has started petting/grooming, with very positive results.

No obvious fleas and clear eyes (behind that dry crust) are very positive signs. He/She simply needs time to eat, drink, rest and recover.

Notes:

We spotted the kitten at the red dot, next to the pole for the traffic lights.

Here are some shots of James being allowed to pet the kitten. He definitely has a way with cats.

The line behind the kitten is a feather fishing pole cat toy.

This is where we found the kitten, next to the pole in the picture on the right.

]]>https://www.sob.boatswain.us/feral-kitten/feed/1HTTrackhttps://www.sob.boatswain.us/httrack/
https://www.sob.boatswain.us/httrack/#respondThu, 31 Mar 2016 21:17:58 +0000http://sob.boatswain.us/?p=633HTTrack is a free (GPL) and easy-to-use offline browser utility. Basically, it allows you to download the contents of a internet site to a local directory. It builds a complete set of recursively directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server and stashing them on your computer. These are static, HTML images of the original site, even if it was built using some database centered, dynamic page tool. I find it great for archiving copies of my sites …Continue reading →

Basically, it allows you to download the contents of a internet site to a local directory. It builds a complete set of recursively directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server and stashing them on your computer. These are static, HTML images of the original site, even if it was built using some database centered, dynamic page tool.

I find it great for archiving copies of my sites before making major changes, or shutting them down.

Using HTTrack

There are versions of HTTrack for multiple OS environments. The one I use is for a standard Linux system. I have configured it to run from a script as a CRON task. The script reads a series of files that list small collections of web sites. It only processes one site at a time, to prevent overloading remote sites that are on shared servers. It stashes each collection in a designated directory on my local server for local backup and browsing.

One of the nice features of the %L function is that it automatically builds an index of the site collections in the target folder.

The file list (LinkList-01) is a simple list of targeted sites. I found that WordPress sites seem to like to be listed as “http://sob.boatswain.us/”, while my Mediawiki sites won’t work with that and need to be listed without the domain garbage, simply as “sysadm.equoria.com”.

The user agent (-F) is explained in the next section.

user agent 403 rejections

There appears to be a problem with many sites related to the default User Agent identification.

Like a good boy, HTTrack identifies itself when it connects, and immediately get rejected.

Using wget as a testing tool, you can see that it is the HTTrack User Agent that triggers the forbidden message.